Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Spring has Sprung: The Vernal Equinox

Spring, otherwise known as the Vernal Equinox, arrived today at 7:02 a.m. EDT. Every year, I post in honor of the arrival of Spring, and every year I learn something new. The word Equinox comes from the Latin words "aequus" meaning equal and "nox" meaning night. This means that the day and night are of equal length everywhere, and that the sun rises due East and sets due West.

There is a bit of folklore that says that on the Equinox you can set a raw egg on its end and it will stay upright. Some folks performed experiment, and they were successful, but when they repeated it 3 days later, the results were the same. Perhaps the days immediately surrounding the Equinox work equally as well. So, having a dozen eggs in the fridge, I decided to give it a try. Well guess what? All my eggs fell over onto their little white faces. Not one would stand up and salute Spring.What are some of the signs that Spring has sprung, well besides the daffodils and tiny red buds on the maple trees, that is? This is when the worms come forth from the ground, and ladybugs are seen on the fresh new sprouts. The birds are gathering bits of straw, string and whatever looks like good nest building materials to create homes for their new families.Yes, Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal of life. Although depending on your location, Nature and the calendar may not always be in agreement.

Yes, spring very welcome (though we still have snow and freezing temperatures here in Sweden at the moment). But the way I feel that we are moving towards spring now is that the days are a lot brighter now, which is very nice.

I had no idea about the egg thing by the way. Would have been really cool if your eggs had stayed upright. :p

Calendar spring and reality spring are so badly out of sync this year, I may cry until June.

More facts for you: my birthday always share part of the 24 hours of the vernal equinox; beginning in 2013, the UN has declared March 20 International Day of Happiness; and finally, March 20th is World Sparrow Day across Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe where the sparrow population has steadily declined.